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When We Were Orphans
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
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When We Were Orphans
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Publisher's Summary
Within the layers of the narrative told in Christopher's precise, slightly detached voice are revealed what he can't, or wont, see: that the simplest desires, a child's for his parents, a man's for understanding, may give rise to the most complicated truths.
A feat of narrative skill and soaring imagination, When We Were Orphans is Kazuo Ishiguro at his brilliant best.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- DALEE. Planette
- 2023-06-21
well written and nicely narrated
I stupidly hadn't realized this was a detective story, which is NOT my fav genre. However, I plodded thru it (thank goodness for the wonderful narration) and have finally finished it. Turns out to be more a story about a detective and much less about the mystery and its resolution and solving thereof.
The historical backdrop is quite interesting and not anything I knew about (early 20th C China/Shanghai, opium wars, China and Japan at war). But the story took forever to get going and mostly I was bored thru much of the novel. I wouldn't not recommend, but I'm unlikely to seek out the author again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- j. campion
- 2017-10-09
the best of the best
... an incredible tale by the masterful Ishiguro performed by a superb narrator. I was caught up in the narrative from the very first line to the last.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- andrew
- 2021-03-17
Memory
Our minds work very differently as children, young adults and when we age. The first person narrator, Christopher Banks, has amazing powers of recall but his mind plays other tricks and distorts the past (was Akira really Akira?). Although I loved the story I couldn't warm to Banks or Sarah Hemmings. Banks treated some Chinese and Japanese appallingly and in a very colonialist way. Perhaps Ishiguro intends for his protagonist to be unpopular, as he was at his prep school. Strange that as a detective it took Banks so long to figure some things out but it was the start of WWII and then after that communist China so perhaps no surprise. Nothing is quite what it seems at first in this novel and that keeps one guessing. Is Banks even a reliable narrator? I suspect not. Many times he tells us his memory is foggy on a particular event only to then go on and paint a crystal clear account in cinematographic detail. He tells us endlessly and nauseatingly how he is a great detective without actually saying much about the cases.
John Lee was fine with the European voices and does pomposity very well but I really wish he hadn't put on faux Asian accents for the various Chinese and Japanese characters. This is Mr. I. Y. Yunioshi territory and I'm sure very offensive to South-East Asian listeners.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Annie
- 2022-06-28
Table of contents issue
The table of contents of the audible version is different from the one of printed/electronic book. This issue makes switching between this audiobook and a printed copy more difficult than it should be.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Ricksilver
- 2019-02-12
Not for me
I abandoned at the climax. Too much of nothing in so many ways. caveat emptor.
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